Modi govt invited bids for 150 oxygen plants last year. Only 33 have been set up till now

A selection of the best news reports, analysis and opinions published by ThePrint this week.

A worker fit medical oxygen cylinders from an Oxygen plant, amid a surge in coronavirus cases, at Sawai Mansingh hospital in Jaipur, on 26 April 2021 | PTI

Modi govt invited bids for 150 oxygen plants in October. Today, just 33 are up

In October last year, the government invited tenders for 150 pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants. This January, the number of sanctioned facilities appeared to increase as the government said it had allocated Rs 201.58 crore for the setting up of 162 PSA plants across India. However, on 18 April, the health ministry announced that only 33 of these had been set up around the country, report Abantika Ghosh and Remya Nair.

Mumbai Covid numbers fall but don’t be complacent, it’s thanks to lockdown, experts say

Mumbai, which was recording 10,000 to 11,000 new Covid cases every day at the beginning of April, with a daily positivity rate of 20 to 30 per cent, has seen a steady decline in the number of new cases last week, reports Manasi Phadke.

Dexamethasone, remdesivir, plasma, doxycycline: Which works for Covid and which doesn’t

Most drugs patients are being prescribed have not proven to help with treatment of Covid-19. Sandhya Ramesh brings you a list of all such drugs and their scientific merit.

A bacteria made Indians political. A virus will now extract a political price from Modi

During the famines and plague under the British, an equaliser bacteria spelled the end of the empire. A virus is now dismantling national obedience to Modi, writes Shruti Kapila.

Something has changed for Modi. Perception management isn’t working anymore

The scale of the fresh Covid challenge is too big to be managed with BJP’s polemics and sophistry, writes D.K. Singh.

Mayday, Mayday — How Modi govt led India into a perfect storm

Triumphalism, premature declaration of victory meant no one checked if India had enough vaccines, oxygen, remdesivir, bringing us back to a crisis where we need foreign aid after four decades, writes Shekhar Gupta in this week’s ‘National Interest’